


Rainy

by MyPretzels



Category: Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. (TV)
Genre: Alternate Universe - College/University, F/M, I could make it an Academy AU, I wrote this long ago, Slow Burn, but i got lazy
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2018-06-20
Updated: 2018-08-06
Packaged: 2019-05-25 21:09:57
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 7
Words: 16,217
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/14985644
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/MyPretzels/pseuds/MyPretzels
Summary: ---- Alternate Universe ----It's a storm that allows them to finally meet.It's the beginning of an easygoing friendship.The circumstances aren't the most propitious for them to address what they are starting to feel for one another. And it might take a few more storms for them to realize it.





	1. Soaked

**Author's Note:**

> I started to write this over an year ago, but for some reason, I kept pushing aside editing to post it.  
> I'm done procrastinating (about this), so here it goes.
> 
> Let me know what you think about it.

She’s soaked, almost completely soaked and there’s still two miles to walk until she finds shelter to hide. She just keeps walking forward, ignoring the most she can the icy wind.

At first, it was just a quick rain, but it evolved to a storm within minutes, there wasn’t anything she could do about it. She left in the morning without umbrella, just a coat and went to the town public library, but in her way back, the storm surprised her. At first, she tried to run, but the ground became too slippery and she was already wet, why force herself if it wouldn’t make much of a difference?

Jemma keeps walking, holding her precious textbooks inside her coat and hugging herself to keep them in place and make sure they’ll arrive dry at her place. Around her there’s only spread trees and an endless lawn, no place to hide, she’s smart enough not to be tempted to hide under a tree, she knows she doesn’t want to be electrocuted. She walks and slips on the lawn for a few meters until she reaches the sidewalk.

Not wanting to stay on grass anymore, there’s already too much mud on her shoes.

A freezing blast of wind gets to her and shakes her bones. Her jeans are long soaked entirely and so are her shoes, squeaking at every step in the rock sidewalk. The only part of her slightly warm and dry is her torso, because her coat is efficient enough to keep her dry there and she’s using it to ensure the integrity of her books.

Jemma takes a moment to pull the hood over her head again, because the wind keeps trying to push it away. She tucks the point of her ponytail back and since it got wet in the fight with the wind, she feels the cold water running down her back and succeeding in making her freeze.

“Just keep going.” She mutters to herself, knowing it’s still a long way to reach the comfort and dryness of the dorm building.

The street is empty, just a few cars parked, but none inside and the water is starting to pill up at the sides, by to the sidewalks since it cannot be drained fast enough.

She curses herself once again when she has to pass over a large puddle, the choosing of shoes was completely unsuccessful, fabric shoes were a terrible choice, Jemma should’ve gone for the rain boots she had locked deep down her wardrobe. She decides to face it and walks inside it, even when the splashes get to her tights and only worsen her situation.

She hears a motor sound in the back of the street, but doesn’t dare looking, just focuses in walking her way back and gets home to a hot shower and hide under the duvet. The car passes beside her and starts slowing down a few meters ahead, but she keeps hugging her books and walking toward campus.

“Hey, you.” Someone shout and she obligates herself to look up when she is almost paired up with the vehicle.

 _Ignore him, they’ll probably only make fun of you_. She thinks to herself and looks away from the car and its suddenly open window.

“Hey, you. Are you alright, lass?” The accent sounds familiar and she finally looks up to the person inside the car.

“I’ve been better.” She shouts, her voice cracking because of the cold.

“Are you heading to campus?” He asks nicely, putting his head almost out the car to look at her.

“Yeah.” She only answers and goes back to walk, it’s not smart to waste her time talking to strangers when she’s risking getting pneumonia for being so long in the rain.

“Wait, I think I know you.” He says and pairs up with her again. “You’re Simmons, aren’t you? From Chem.”

“Yeah.” She mutters and quickly glances to him, barely recognizing his face from one class or another.

“Get in, I’ll drive you to your building.”

She stops on her heelpieces, pondering the offer. She knows she should never accept rides from strangers, but she’s freezing and he’s a colleague, not that it makes it safer. She knows she has her phone at the reach of her hands, so she can try to call someone to pick her up or ask for help if he tries anything. But what convinces her is the couple miles walk still in front of her and the fact that by car it won’t take more than a few minutes.

“Thanks.” She says and runs to his car, holding her books inside the coat from moving with her clumsy run.

“Lord, you must be freezing.” He says when she gets inside and sits at the passenger seat, soaking it up within seconds. He turns the heat up immediately. “Your lips are purple.” He closes his window and reaches in the back seat for something.

“Thanks, again.” She mutters and hugs herself tightly.

“You shouldn’t be out in this rain, not in your state.” He murmurs and pulls a jumper from the mess of books in the back seat. “Here.” He offers it to her and she burrows her forehead.

“My state?” Jemma asks intrigued.

“Yeah.” He glances at her for a moment and down to her stomach and she frowns again and follows his sigh, only then noticing the volume caused for the books she’s hiding safely inside her coat.

“Oh, no.” She says and pulls the zipper down, showing the tip of the books she’s keeping safe inside a plastic bag. “It’s not. It’s just books.” She says and he sighs almost relieved.

“My bad. I was already wondering if I should drive you to a hospital.” He offers the jumper again. “Dress up.”

“Thanks.” She grabs the piece, shoves her coat out, sliding inside the coziness of the jumper and closes the zipper back up, still keeping the books glued to her torso under the piece of clothing. She drops the coat over by her feet, letting it drip wet the carpet of his car. His jumper smells a bit as aftershave, but she doesn’t mind it, it’s nice.

He drives up the street and turns up the heat again, filling the car with warmness. Jemma places her hands close to the air exit to warm them quickly and feels his gaze over hers.

They’re entering the main street on the campus when she sees a growing flooding at the lowest part of the street, not allowing the car to pass through it.

“Pull over.” She says with hurry, but he’s already slowing down.

“I’ll turn around and enter by the south wing.” He says naturally.

“No, it’s alright, you can leave me here, it’s not far.” She says and starts to bend to grab her coat again.

“No, wait.” He grabs her hand and immediately backs away, feeling the freezing of her fingers. “Sorry.”

“It’s alright. Thank you.” She’s about to open the door when she hears the clicking of locking.

“Listen, Simmons. I’m heading to the dorms buildings anyway, I can leave you at the door, there’s no need for you to go under this hellish storm again.” He says and then unlocks the car, giving her a chance to consider his offer.

“I don’t know.” She says and looks at the flooding area, knowing she’ll have to go around it and probably will end up arriving at the same time as him, even with her smaller distance to walk around.

“God, you’re already freezing, let me take you there, alright, lass?” He says after a minute of waiting and she agrees with a nod. “Good.” He starts making the way back to the entrance of the west wing. “I’m Fitz.” He tells when they cross the gates.

“Simmons.” She says, accustomed to referring to herself by her last name. “It’s a pleasure to meet you.” She says, but doesn’t offer a hand to shake, keeping them again closer to the air exit.

“You’re still freezing, aren’t you?” He rambles when they stop at a red light. His hands reach over hers and as they wait, he rubs them over hers. Her first instinct is to pull them back, but she gives up doing it because his hands are incredibly warm.

He puts them back at the steering wheel when the sign turns green again and they move closer to the south wing entrance. There’s line of cars in front of them to get inside the campus and as they wait for the other students to get inside, he goes back to rubbing her hands while waiting the cars to move in front of them.

“You don’t have to do this.” She mutters when he reaches for her hands a third time and he stops, retrieving them back to the steering wheel. “But thank you.” After they pass the entrance, it’s a quick trip to the dorms area.

“What’s your building?” He asks when he’s entering the main street.

“Hab. D.” She says automatically.

“I’m from E.” He says and turns left to their sector. She can see the pandemonium in the front doors of her building. She gets back inside her coat and pulls the hood up, zipping it a moment before he finds a parking space.

He turns the car off, reaches in the back seat for his backpack and takes out a umbrella. She doesn’t have a chance to say a word, because in the next moment, he’s out the car, running in front of it to open the door for her, offering a hand for her to get out. He passes a hand over her shoulders, barely touching her, just to keep her under the umbrella.

They walk side by side to the entrance of her building, but it’s only when they’re a few yards from the doors that she understands the confusion. There’s no energy, the lights are off and several students are in the lounge.

“Safe and sound.” He mutters, but his smile drains out his face within a second.

“Simmons.” Someone shouts, she turns to find the voice and runs to his arms when she finds Milton in the small crowd in the lounge. “I was worried about you.”

Fitz turns around, facing the mess of puddles in the sidewalk until his building, he prepares himself to the walk, but a hand holds his shoulder and he turns back.

“Thank you.” Jemma mutters with her boyfriend almost joined to her hips.

“No problem, lass.” Fitz murmurs.

“We’re out energy.” Milton says, catching Fitz attention back to Simmons.

“All buildings?” She asks anxiously, her lips are still purple by cold.

“Only this sector, so Hab. B, D and F.” Milton says. “No one’s getting able to go inside their quarters, the locks are all energy powered.”

“But the generator?” This time Fitz asks, he glances to the freezing girl in front of him with concern. She notices his eyes overflowing in concern.

_Ocean blue._

“Not working yet, they said it’ll take another couple hours.” Milton says.

“In which one do you live?” He asks to the guy.

“Hab. B.” He mutters in an annoyed voice. “Who are you again?”

“Fitz, from Engineering.” Fitz offers his hand and Milton accepts it reluctantly.

“I’m Milton.” He says.

“Fitz gave me a ride here. I was walking back from the library when the rain started.” Jemma explains, noticing the fierce looks from Milton to Fitz.

“You’ll freeze in here until the power’s back.” Fitz affirms and looks back to her. “If he’s right there’s still power in my building, you can shower in there.” He offers with a soft tone.

“On, no. I don’t think I could-” She doesn’t have a chance to finish, because he’s moving inside her building and pulling her by her wrist.

“Lass, where’s your bunk?” He asks, putting his umbrella aside and walking with her inside the building.

“Why?”

“We’ll break in to get you some clothes and you can shower somewhere else before you freeze and end up with pneumonia.” He says it very calmly and stops at the stairs “Which floor?”

“Second.” She mutters automatically and follows his lead, few steps behind them, she can hear Milton grumbling something, she gives him a look to make him stop. “The locks aren’t working.” She says when they reach the second floor.

“No problem.” Fitz shrugs and takes his backpack. “Lead the way.” He says, looking for something inside it and following to her door, she stops in front of it and he drops his backpack at the floor, holding up a few screwdrivers, a tablet and a chip.

“Are you really going to be able to open it?” She asks, shaking entirely with the cold air inside the building and looks down to the slender boy in front of her, he only nods and looks up to the lock.

She watches him working on the lock for a few minutes, putting it apart and detaching the touch panel with ease. Her fingers are stiff, almost freezing, she still holds her textbooks inside her coat and hugs herself to keep warm.

He disconnects a few wires and connects his tablet to it, she watches carefully when he changes some settings and offers his tablet for her to type her password. She hands it back to him, noticing how dry he looks in comparison to the puddle on the carpet around her feet, from all the water slipping out her jeans and shoes.

“Here, open.” He presses the doorknob and the door slides open, her chin drops to the floor for a moment before she rushes inside.

“How did you do that?” Milton asks, reaching curiously.

“Engineering.” Fitz simply says. “The emergency lock is hydraulic, just needed to restart it.” He shakes his shoulders.

Jemma doesn’t pay much attention to them, reaching her wardrobe for warm clothes and a towel, she shoves her text books in her bed and gets her empty backpack to put the clothes inside. She watches by the corner of her eye that he’s still working in the panel, she rushes to find a pair of shoes and closes it all inside.

“Simmons?” She steps out the doorframe and walks to him. “Here, you replace it when the power’s back, you’ll have to set a new password and it’s all good.” He says and hands her a tiny chip, he points to one of the sides of the panel to where she has to place the chip later.

“Thank you, Fitz.” She says with a smile, but it quickly drains out with the frown on Milton’s face.

She feels the cold of her clothing again and by the looks on Fitz’s face, it’s visible she’s draining out of heat. Her shoes squeak when she walks.

“Are you leaving with him?” Milton asks when she reaches the end of the first flight of stairs.

“I’ll just shower and come back. I’m freezing.” She says and reaches for his hand, to show the coldness of her fingers. “Come along and you can wait for me.” She asks softly and he melts, intensifying the hold in her hand to warm her fingers.

She watches Fitz walking faster in front of them, giving them space to talk.

They all end up walking to his building, this time Fitz walks beside her with the umbrella, but doesn’t dare in passing his arm over her shoulders. It’s a relief to find out Milton was right about the energy blackout, the energy in his building is working fine.

She follows him inside and enters the elevator behind him, noticing he’s one of the lucky ones that lives on the higher floor, with lots of sunlight probably dancing on his room every morning.

He opens the door of his room for her, she notices a messy tied bed with tons of projects over it, a desktop full of engine pieces and screwdrivers, and some piles of books by his bedside.

“Sorry, it’s a bit messy.” He says and points to the bathroom door. “Make yourself at home.” He murmurs politely and closes the door behind him, leaving her alone in his room.

“Quite odd this jock.” She says and quickly runs to the bathroom, turning on the faucet before she even takes her clothes off.

She lets it form a pile at her feet and jumps inside the shower stall, melting down under the hot stream. She tries not to think about both of them outside his room, probably giving each other weird looks out of nothing.

“He’s just nice, Milton.” She murmurs to herself, knowing she’ll have to deal with his jealous frowns later.

For now, she only worries about getting warm, so she lets the hot water round her and blesses his glorious shower, envying it deeply, the stream it’s a lot better than hers, more water pressure and a lot warmer as well.

She was in such a hurry to pack her clothes, she didn’t even bother in thinking about bringing hygiene products, after a bit of considering, she uses a bit of his shampoo and goes for the liquid soap as well. Washing away the cold of the rain and the mud on her knees and toes.

She doesn’t take long, even wanting to stay forever under his shower. Jemma dresses up quickly with dry clothes and stuff her wet belongings in the backpack. She puts up the jumper and her coat, since it’s still mostly dry inside and slide her feet inside the warmer shoes. Leaving his bathroom with no more signs of freezing, her lips even abandoned the purplish tone they had before. She dries her hair the best she can, since she doesn’t see a hairdryer and has no courage to search for it.

When she leaves his room, she finds them sit at the small communitarian room. Fitz is facing back to her, appears to be checking his phone, Milton, on the other side, looks straight to the door and has a cranky face. He gets up immediately after he sees her getting out.

“You look better now, lass.” Fitz says it first and she can see the corner of Milton’s lips curving down.

“Thank you, really.” She repeats again and he smiles politely, nodding once before heading to his room.

“You’re more than welcome.” He adds and gets inside his room.

“You look upset.” Jemma murmurs, knowing what’s coming next.

“I might have reasons.” He says bitterly as they go to the elevator doors. “I didn’t know you had English friends?” Milton asks.

“Well, most of them are still back in England, there’s not many of us around here.” She says calmly and he gives her a crossed look. “Besides, I think he’s Scottish.” Jemma adds.

“You think? _Lass?_ ” He raises an eyebrow, his voice carried with sarcasm.

“There’s no reason for you to be angry or jealous.” She affirms and gets out the elevator, he offers to carry her backpack and they sit at the lounge, waiting for the rain to ease so they can go home.

“Since when do you know him?”

“Hmm, an hour, perhaps?” She says uncertain and he wrinkles his forehead. “I told you, I was heading back from the library when the storm started.”

“Why didn’t you called me?” He asks.

“I did twice, but you didn’t answer, so I kept walking.” She murmurs, sitting beside him in one of the couches on the lounge, he finally gives in and wraps an arm over her shoulders. “He was driving to the campus and offered me a ride, I didn’t want to get in, but I was freezing.”

“Uhum.” He hums and Jemma sighs.

“I still had over a mile to walk and I had a bunch of textbooks with me, under my jacket. I really wanted to get home.” She whispers the last part and waits for his reaction, but he only nods again, not buying her story totally but not daring to question her fidelity.

Once the rain is over, they head home, for the first time on the week, she gets back to her room alone, even not understanding his annoyance with the situation.

+++


	2. Texts

The bad weather lasts for a week, and most of it she spends sneezing after a cold she got with the rain. She’s pushed back from all her work at the lab as she recovers, this way, she has extra work to do outside to compensate her otiose hours. 

Jemma doesn’t adventure herself back to the town library, staying in the ones inside the campus, especially since the public transportation is working slow because of the destruction of the storm in the day after her soaking experience. 

After that day she walks everywhere with an umbrella inside her backpack.

All the time.

Milton’s still a bit bitter with her because of the incident with Fitz, even with her reassuring him over and over that he wasn’t hitting on her and that she was not giving him a shot. She ends up insisting to make peace and sleeping at his place, even if she dislikes his creepy neighbor and the longer walk she has to take to arrive to her morning classes.

She’s walking outside the cafeteria of the Biology building towards the library for the next hours to finish her extra work. She bites a bagel in her way upstairs and ends it a step from the library, grabbing her books out the backpack and leaving it at the lockers.

“Hey, lass.” She leaps out when the voice sounds near her. “Sorry, didn’t mean to startle you.”

“Fitz?” She looks at him standing beside her and putting his backpack inside another locker.

“How are you?” He politely asks.

“Quite nice, you?” She locks it and pick up her books to walk inside the library.

“Mostly fine.” He follows her inside. “What are you studying for?”

“Extra work from Bio Lab classes.” She says and he wrinkles his head. “I got a cold last week and they gave me homework to compensate my hours, since I couldn’t work in the lab.” She explains and he shakes his head.

“I have some Biology and Physics exercises to solve, but I couldn’t concentrate in the cafeteria.” He says, walking beside her to the upper floor of the library. “You mind if I make you company?”

“Not at all.” She answers, probably too fast, but it only brings a sweet smile to his lips and she enjoys looking at it. “You’re from Engineering, right?”

“Yeah. And Physics.” He says a bit buffy and she chuckles.

“Double major, hm?” She asks and his smile becomes wider. “Same for me, but in Biology and Chemistry.” She says and he raises his eyebrows.

“Very smart lass, then.” He says and points to a table near the window, isolated from the others in the middle of the room.

“Just a bit.” She says in a playful tone. “Why are you taking Biology classes?” She asks when he drops an Advanced Biology book on the table.

“Extra credit.”

“Greedy?” She jokes and hears a low laugh as they sit across the table, facing each other.

“Kind of.” He says softly and opens his notebook.

They study for the first hour mostly in silence and she enjoys glancing at him when he’s working in physics equations, because the way he solves them are way too entertaining. She knows most of his calculations are done in his head because he just takes notes of partial results and solve gigantic problems in just a few minutes with just some sketches of the calculations.

In one of her peeks on him, she glances directly to his blue eyes locked in her face, he doesn’t try to gaze away, just smiles to her.

“You look a lot less pale now.” He simply says. “Fits you better.” He adds and makes her smile a bit.

“Thank you for that.” She whispers, feeling a hint of embarrassment growing in her chest.

“No need for thanking me, lass, just did what was right.” He mumbles shyly and she notices the flush of embarrassment washing his face for a moment, leaving a hint of pink on his neck and cheeks.

“Though, I really appreciate it. You spared me from a much worse outcome.” She whispers again. “I still need to give your jumper back.”

“Don’t worry about that.” He tells and glances down to his textbook, getting back to his crazy equations.

Even on mute, her phone shines when she gets a text from Milton, she just taps the screen to shut it down in the first time, because he knows she’s at the library and it’ll take more time to finish her homework.

However, by the fourth time its screen shines, she’s forced to pick up to turn it off.

“Answer him, he might be worried.” Fitz mumbles without taking his eyes out his textbooks.

_ Are you done studying? _ ~ Milton

_ For how long are you going to be busy tonight? _ ~ Milton

_ I just got an invitation to a party after today’s game, want to come? _ ~ Milton

_ I accepted it, let me now when I can pick you up. _ ~ Milton

She glances to the boy across the table once before deciding to reply to his texts.

_ I’m at the library yet. I’ll finish it up in a couple hours at minimum. Where’s it? _ ~ Jemma.

_ I don’t think I should go if it starts raining again. I’m still recovering, hoarse voice and all _ . ~ Jemma.

“You should go, lass.” Fitz mutters, still not looking up, she wrinkles her forehead, the odds of him being able to read her texts upside down at this distance are incredibly low. “I didn’t read a thing, you just looked hesitating.”

“It’s a party of something, but the weather is still bad.” She explains for no reason at all and he glances up.

“Afraid of the rain, lass?” He teases and smiles wider. “You seemed quite determinate the other day.”

“Well, you cannot blame me for not wanting to repeat the experience.” She whispers and locks her phone, getting back to her notes.

Someone passes by and asks for quietness and Jemma nods, putting her nose back in the books to read the content of the chapter before she starts writing down her notes about the subject.

_ You shouldn’t push yourself too hard, lass, go have some fun. ~ F. _

She glances away from the post it he just glued at the back of her hand, he offers a sympathetic smile and gets back to the exercise.

_ You’re the one working on extra credit. ~ J. _

_ That doesn’t mean I don’t have fun from time to time. Besides, what’s J. for? ~ F. _

_ I’m still considering the possibilities, but I’ll take your words in count. And J. is for Jemma. ~ J. _

_ That’s a rather pretty name. ~ F. _

She glances up after reading the post it he glued on her textbook, she’s about to work on a reply when he stands up, picking up his book and leaning over her textbook to write something down.

_ The name fits you. Text me if you want to study together on another day. Go have fun, lass. ~ F. _

She watches him leaving with his books on hands and after he’s out of sight she glances down to his note and the number written down. The first impulse it’s to erase it out, but he didn’t imply anything concerning, so she considers if she should put him of her contacts list on her cell.

After a moment wondering, she lists him under the name ‘F.’ and turns her phone off, ignoring the next texts from Milton and his rushing will of taking her to an outside meeting when she’s still a bit sick and the weather’s still cold.

After spending a few more hours working on her extra work, she decides not to go to his dinner meeting, texting him when it’s getting dark outside. She leaves for her room alone again and under the sound of rain later that night, she sleeps peacefully.

Milton’s the one with a cold in the following couple days, she helps him out the best she can, but most of his disciplines she cannot attend because of her tight schedule, so he ends up going to classes still a bit sick.

In this mean time, Jemma finds out she has a few classes with Fitz, but he mostly hides in the back of the class in silence, so she has no courage to go talk to him, especially because she’s still a bit embarrassed, and flattered too, with his subtle compliments on the other day.

After much considering, she’s still reluctant in talking to Fitz. She decides texting is a better option, but still lacks of courage to do it, even with her deadline running closer. Her absences in Holographic Engineering resulted in some difficulties with the subject and she knows that the students from engineer are quite into it, but she doesn’t know many of them besides Fitz.

She writes and rewrites the text, wondering if it’s not too much to ask for his help. She changes her mind when she opens the website of the discipline again and stares at his name listed as tutor of the discipline. Him, from all people could really help her catch the subject quickly, especially because that’s what he’s doing to other students.

_ Could you help me out with Holo? I missed a few classes and I’m quite confused yet. ~ J. _

She sends in an impulsive act and then hides her face under her pillow, dying of shame of talking to him again.

_ He just called you pretty. Get over it, Milton says it all the time. _ Her inner self murmurs angrily, but it doesn’t help much to easy her embarrassment. 

She leaves her phone in her room and pays a visit to Milton as she waits for a reply, he’s all better of the cold, so she doesn’t hesitate in getting in his dorm to make him some company. He’s finishing a sketch when she rushes inside.

“Hey.” He smiles to her and she walks to sit on his lap when he rolls the chair away from the desk. “Missed you.” He says before he kisses her.

“Me too.” She tells and smiles to him. “What you’re working on?” She leans to the sketch on the desktop.

“Nothing very important.” He says and rolls closed the sheet of paper, turning his attention to her.

+++ 

When she’s walking back to her room, she’s still mad about the hickie on her neck and the excessive amount of makeup she’ll need to cover it. 

And she knows why he did it. 

When they were talking about issues of the classes between kisses, she mentioned she was thinking about calling Fitz help with Holo, but didn’t tell she already had, and moments later he sucked off her neck and gave a big smile.

She gets into her room with an upset mood, going directly to the mirror to see the disaster on her neck. It’s already starting to turn purplish when she gives a good look at it.

_ Stupid fragile masculinity _ . She curses to herself and notices her phone shining over the desk with a few new texts.

_ Of course. Are you busy this weekend? ~ F. _

_ I have some time tomorrow also if you can’t in the weekend. ~ F. _

She smiles to the small victory and starts writing a comeback right away _._

_ Tomorrow is great. How about 5pm.? ~ J. _

_ Alright, meet you at the entrance of Engineering building. ~ F. _

_ See you then. ~ J. _

The smile doesn’t go away so easily. She finds herself smiling when she’s about to close her window and notices the light rain outside.

She can't help thinking it brings her a good feeling watching the drops hit the glass.


	3. Study Sessions

When her classes end in the next day, she heads to the cafeteria to buy herself a hot beverage and she wonders if she should buy him something as well, she decides to give it a try and ends up getting a peppermint tea for each one. She adjusts the scarf around her neck, covering what the makeup couldn’t.

Jemma talks to Milton over the phone for a moment and says she’s catching up what she lost in Holo classes, not mentioning with whom, because he’ll get jealous again and she’s trying to avoid this reaction of him.

She feels a bit bad at lying and hiding things from him, but at this point, she decides it’s best just to delays the true for a little longer.

It’s not like she’s doing anything wrong anyway.

“Hey, lass.” Fitz says when she waves at him, getting inside the Engineering building. “How are you?”

“Fine, you?” Jemma follows him to the staircases leading to the underground floor. “I got this for you.” She offers him the travel cup with a sympathetic smile.

“Thanks.” He opens the door of the ‘Cave’ for her.

“I didn’t know what you like, but I think everyone loves tea in a cold weather.” She notices there’re more people inside, most of them working at the corners in a row of tables, she stops halfway a bit confused of where to go.

The room is large, illuminated by yellowish lights, making wonders to her eyes since it’s not so tiring as the lab fluorescent bright lights. In her right side there’s a large row of tables and outlets, people working on groups in each table, after it there’s a few old arcade machines that still seem to work. Right beside the door on the left side there’s some bean bags, vending machines and a fridge.

“Cool place.” She whispers, sipping her cup. He places his hand between her blade bones and gives a little push, for her to walk in the direction of the lines of shelves at the back, it might occupy almost half of the room, but she can see the end of it and the illuminated place behind it.

“Come on.”

They walk in the larger corridor between the selves and pass the restroom doors to a smaller room at the right side, with better lighting. There’s no wall actually separating it from the rest of the Cave, the only sort of barrier they have with the rest of the place is the lines of shelves.

There’re several desktops forming a U, some of them with computers, all surrounding the couple holotables at the center of the room. She walks around and drops her backpack over one of the desktops and pulls the chair closer to the second holotable.

It’s by a light flickering that she notices that the wall across where they are in it’s painted in a different color, a dark brown. It seems a bit odd compared to the side they’re in.

 “What’s in there?” She asks.

“Hm. It’s the Control Room, people usually play video games in there.” Fitz points to the door she didn’t see before, because it’s painted the same color as the wall, even the doorknob, and it kind of rests in the shadows of the main room.

“Cool name, but why is it separated?”  She asks, going in the direction of it.

“Come back here.” He grabs her wrist and points to the lock in the room. “You don’t want to get in.” He says and she raises an eyebrow.

“Why is that so?” She looks at him, but by the corner of her eye, she can see someone spying on them from the front side of the Cave.

“Hmm. Come back and I’ll explain, alright?” He lets go of her wrist and walks back to the first holotable, turning it on and she considers.

Jemma walks to his side and leans over the desktop, she watches him pulling stuff up and organizing the content of the classes. He glances to her twice before finishing his quick organization.

“Tell me.” She asks and steps beside him, when he turns to talk to her, she’s just a few inches away, curious eyes and no consideration of personal space. He gives a small step back and pulls a chair for himself.

“The other side is larger than this one.” Fitz waves his hand and she nods, waiting for the motive why he didn’t want her to get closer. “They have video games contest there sometimes, but there’s still a bunch of free space.” He mutters and she keeps her eyes locked on his face.

“And? Are they playing now? Was I going to interrupt it?” She asks and he chuckles.

“Geez, lass.” Fitz says and she remains confused. “The room is mostly dark, you know, to improve the game experience.” He continues calmly and plays with a piece of holographic engine on the holotable. “There’s lots of space, so someone got the idea do fill it with a bunch of loveseats and people pile up to snog.” He murmurs and she raises her eyebrows.

“Do you mean?” She waves her hand and he nods between low laughs. “Thank you for stopping me then.”

“Yeah, I’m sure your boyfriend wouldn’t like a bit if you got inside.” He murmurs and looks away to the table, before she gets a chance to say a word, he points to the holotable. “Shall we get started?”

“Sure.”

“What’s troubling you, lass?” He runs the classes contents and she follows his leads to review the subject she lost in her sick days.

Fitz has a nice voice, she notices while he’s explaining the main functions of the table and going through the basics of the settings and controls to allow her to be able to work on it.

She’s a fast learner, so he rarely needs to repeat the instructions for her, when he passes her a quick quiz, she almost succeeds completely, missing only one question. He goes through her doubts and explains it the best he can to help her understand it all. Jemma takes some notes to help her remember what to do when she starts studying it on her own later.

“Do you want a break?” He glances down to his watch when she finishes a quite hard exercise with ease after getting to know how the table works. She nods and sinks on her chair, pulling the scarf out her neck because it’s itchy now that she’s not in the cold anymore.

“What?” She asks when she finds his eyes gazing at her.

“Nothing. Just that you’ve been having fun.” He scratches his own neck and her eyes grow wide, she rushes to cover the stupid hickie on her neck. “You don’t have to be ashamed of it.” He says and grabs a bag of peanuts in his backpack.

“I’ve already asked him not to do it.” She starts, rounding the scarf around her neck and denies when he offers her his snack.

“You don’t need to explain yourself.” He stuffs a full hand on his mouth and she frowns.

“It’s infuriating.” She complains and he lifts his eyes to her. “I only mentioned to him that I was thinking of asking your help and he sucked off my neck to leave a mark.” She continues messing with the scarf.  “He’s jealous because of the day with the storm.” Jemma adds and glances to his face.

“Hm? Sorry for being a trouble in your relationship by helping you?” He asks a bit confused and she sighs a laugh.

“You don’t need to apologize, he’s being silly.” She says.

“Well, I get the reason why he’s jealous.” Fitz starts and she raises an eyebrow, giving him a warning before he continues. “You’re pleasant to look at and to be around. He’s worried other blokes might think the same.” He murmurs and lowers his gaze to the peanut bag.

And there’s his sweetness. Complimenting again.

She opens her mouth to continue, but a loud click on the door makes both of them turn to see the sloppy couple getting out the Control Room, the guy’s still buttoning his shirt up and the girl has the front of her skirt placed way too much to the left.

She glances back to Fitz, but he has a more composed expression than hers.

“Tidy up, you’re not alone.” Fitz says when the couple are about to start kissing in front of them. Both of them look a bit startled in noticing they have an audience, so they simply rush into the shelves corridor as they work to look presentable again. “Should we end it now? Before your boyfriend starts thinking too much of your studying session?”

She doesn’t have time to answer his question, because he’s already packing up his things and turning off the holotable. Again, Jemma follows his leads, leaving the room right behind him.

“I hope it helped you.” He says when he closes the Cave’s door behind her.

“It did, it truly did. I’m running out ways to thank you.” She smiles.

“I think this time I might ask out a favor back.” He says and it’s automatic for her to turn her attention to him. “I’m in Bioengineer classes, but I don’t have a group to work with yet.” He continues and she grins.

“You can join us. I’m working with Cosima. We’ll meet this weekend to start discussing our project.” She says and he finally smiles back.

“Are you sure? I was going to ask you to help me find a group, but doesn’t need to be yours.”

“You prefer working with someone else?” Her tone is too hurtful when she says it and he shakes his head.

“No, not this. I just don’t want to hold you back.” He shrugs. “Or be in the way of your relationship.”

“Don’t worry about it.” Jemma smiles again. “We’ll meet at the Lab IIB just after lunch on Saturday, is it good for you?”

“Yeah, sure. Thanks, lass.”

She waves him goodbye and tightens the scarf around her neck when she’s in the way back to the cafeteria, where she agreed to meet Milton before dinner.

+++

“He’s cute.” Cosima whispers on her ear when they spot Fitz walking inside the lab.

“You like girls.” Jemma whispers back.

“It doesn’t mean I’m blind.” Cosima plays with her glasses and chuckles a laugh. “Don’t be so egoist, share the goods.” She adds in a whisper and Jemma squint her eyes.

“Shush it.” Jemma mutters back and closes Cosima’s laptop. “Hi, Fitz.” She gets up her stool and walks to him.

“Hey, lass.” He smiles to her and leans a bit to the side to talk to Cosima. “Hi, other lass.”

“This is Cosima.” She points to her friend and he offers a hand for her to shake. “And this is Fitz.” She says back and they exchange a few words.

Jemma ends up sitting between them and they start discussing possible ideas for their project. Cosima mostly leads the talk, rumbling on and on about genetic marks and viable ways to identify the possibilities of them developing into a disease.

“It’s really nice, but I don’t think we have enough time for that.” Jemma argues and Fitz wrinkles his forehead.

“Such a mood killer.” Cosima sighs, raising her hands over her head in defeat.

“I know it’s out of nowhere, but, how about using biologic markers to retrieve data?” Fitz asks a while later when both girls are arguing over the importance of scientific breakthroughs being accessible to the common population.

“What do you mean?” Jemma turns to him with a soft expression.

“Last year, I was working with drones to get data in difficult locations, I only worked with cameras on it, to detect movement and thermal readings.” He shrugs his shoulders when they continue in silent, paying attention to him. “You mentioned genetic markers and it just occurred to me we could add on this and have drones programmed to gather and analyze chemicals, toxins and more.”

“Impressive.” Cosima admits. “I like the idea.”

“Do you have any prototype?” Jemma asks and he grabs his tablet.

“I built only one.” He offers the tablet to her. “That’s all the information I have about it. Designs, functions and collected data.”

“We have to present only one, if you already have a prototype, it eases things up.” She spies over Jemma’s shoulder to see the screen. “I like him.” Cosima whispers to Jemma when Fitz’s checking his phone.

“Shush it.” Jemma murmurs back, swiping her finger over the screen to the actual photo of his drone. “It’s promising.”

“It’s alright if you don’t want it. We can work on something else.” He says in a rushed tone.

“It’s not that, Fitz.” Jemma sighs. “It’s a really great idea, do you really want to waste in a small project?” She hands the tablet back. “You could get a patent for it.”

“He’ll probably get a better chance on it if we improve the prototype.” Cosima says calmly and Jemma elbows her. “I’d a want share if turns out to be successful.” She adds and Jemma elbows her again.

“Of course.” Fitz nods. “It’ll be our design then.”

“Are you really fine with this?” Jemma checks one last time.

“Completely.” He agrees. “Should we get started?”

“Game on!” Cosima says, turning to her laptop again.

It’s a productive afternoon. They argue over the possible type of data they intend to read with the drone, trying to narrow down so they can have a more direct line of work.

It’s a brainstorm session. They take turns in writing down ideas and in speaking about what they have in mind.

They lose track of time with ease.

It’s nightfall when they start discussing the design, the possible changes they’ll need to make in order to enable the functions they want it to have.

“Guys, it’s getting late.” Cosima interrupts the conversation, tapping on the screen of her watch. “I promised to meet Delphine for dinner, I have to go soon.”

“You’re right.” Jemma murmurs, closing her notebook and turning to Fitz to hand back his tablet. “I promised to have dinner with Milton too.”

“I think that’s yours.” He says, tapping his finger at the screen to show the winter flowers’ lock screen. “Mine’s there.” He points to the one over the bench.

“You’re still into this?” Cosima leans forward to glance at the screen. “Did she tell you she wants to tattoo these flowers on her leg.”

“Cosima!” Jemma reprehends. “Ignore her.”

“Really?” Fitz raises his brows. “You like winter flowers?”

“Kind of.” She shrugs. “Also, I think about getting a tattoo on my arm, not leg.” She frowns to Cosima.

“So what? I forgot which limb.” She mocks.

“How much more time do you have?” He asks while reaching for his backpack to search for something inside of it.

“Why?” Cosima questions, already on the way to put away her things.

“I think I could give you a preview.” Fitz shakes his shoulders and opens a hand on Jemma’s direction. “Borrow me your forearm.” It’s an odd choice of words, but Jemma allows the curiosity take care of her and places the back of her hand over his.

Fitz rounds her wrist and pulls her sleeve up to her elbow. He checks her face once to make sure she approves before he starts, with a nod, he goes for his pencil case and takes out a few colored pens.

Within minutes, there’re a bunch contours of dark blue flowers on the inner side of her arm, he changes to a lighter tone of blue and starts coloring it. It goes on for several more minutes, as he continues to change colors and fill up the gaps.

“That’s really cool!” Cosima tells when he’s drawing the branch with a greenish pen. “You’re very talented.” She says to Fitz, getting up with her backpack already on her shoulders and turns to Jemma. “And you’re super intelligent. I enjoyed our afternoon, but I have to go.” She says the last part already walking away.

“Bye.” Jemma waves to her friend with her free hand.

“Done.” He murmurs a minute later, putting away his pen inside the case and letting go of her wrist. “What do you think?”

“I don’t know what to say.”

“You didn’t like, did you?” The worry washes his face when he glances at her blank expression, because he used waterproof markers and it’ll probably take a couple days for the ink to fade away.

“I loved it. It’s so beautiful.” Jemma says as she takes a better look of the drawing on her skin. “Thank you.”

“Any time.” He starts packing his things and she follows, paying attention to get the right tablet this time.

“What about you, any plans tonight?” She closes the zipper of her bag and turns to him.

“Video games and cheap beer at Hunter’s.” He shrugs.

“Sounds fun.” She wrinkles her nose when she speaks and he scoffs at her.

“You’re a terrible liar.”

When they’re shutting off the lights and closing the lab, she waves him goodbye and decides not to roll her sleeve down, liking the pattern drawn in her skin.

She has to admit to herself.

 _Fitz's quite talented_.

It’s not a surprise, later when she climbs in bed beside Milton that he didn’t quite like the drawing in her arm, especially when she ends up telling who made it and that the ink will take a few days to fade. She tries to ease things by telling that Cosima was with them at the time, but he crisps his lips anyway.

_Did I put you in much trouble? ~ F._

_It doesn’t matter. I really like it. You’re quite talented. ~ Jem._

_I’m glad it pleases you. ~ F._

_It really does. It’s very beautiful. ~ Jem._

_Nothing compared to you. ~ F._

Her eyes grow with surprise, she looks to her boyfriend sleeping lied to other side and feels her cheeks warming up again because of his soft words.

She thinks of a good reply, but nothing comes to mind and she sighs.

He’s a nice guy, but she’s in a relationship, it’s not right to give him hopes if she’s not available. However, she doesn’t want to hurt him by being rude or saying too much. She wonders how much of denial she’s facing when she thinks about saying to him she’s not interested.

 _My apologies, lass. I might be slightly drunk, didn’t mean to disrespect you. ~ F_.

He answers before she has a chance to text him anything.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Let me know what you think about it!


	4. Drawings

She doesn’t give up on study sessions they make at the Cave, even after she’s going quite well in Holo. They save Wednesdays nights to study what they need most for the week.

He usually meets her in the door of the cafeteria, after she already said goodbye to her boyfriend. They walk side by side to the Cave, help each other out in exercises and ask random questions to test the other’s knowledge.

“You like drawing, don’t you?” She asks, noticing several sketches on his notebook after he finishes an exercise.

“Yeah, kind of.” He admits.

“I really liked the flowers you drew on my arm.” She confesses, making him lift his eyes to glance at her, the corners of his lips twist up a little.

“Happy to please, lass.” He opens a wider smile, mirroring her own.

“Have you ever thought of working with art? I mean tattoos or stuff like that?” Jemma asks curiously.

“I have and I actually did for a while.” He says as he’s turning to the next page of his textbook.

“Really?” She asks in a tone that’s probably more excited than it should be.

“I designed a few artworks for tattoos, freelancer, you know? Just to make money to travel during high school.” He admits, not bragging himself, he keeps his eyes low in the book and she watches the way he plays his fingers at the corner of the pages.

“That’s so cool.” She says. “Would you design one for me if I…”

“Yeah, sure, whatever you like.” Fitz says too fast that makes Jemma smile, he lowers his eyes again, embarrassed and she cannot avoid thinking how adorable he looks when he’s shy.

“What do you think matches me?” She asks, trying to make him feel comfortable again.

“It depends on what you like.” He glances up at her again.

“Well, I’m a big fan of nature.” She says and he rolls his eyes, making her chuckle.

“It’s a very wide concept.” He raises his eyebrows and waits for her to say something else, hoping she’d give him something more specific to work on.

Instead, she says:

“Surprise me, then.” And offers her arm once again.

Fitz holds the gaze on her direction this time, looking at her, but not truly seeing her, lost on his thoughts.

While his eyes continue out of focus, she takes the time to get a better look at them, trying to figure it out why they call out her attention so intensely. She notices they look brighter under the fluorescent lights and that there’s sprinkles of yellow on his iris.

He shakes his head a moment later and she quickly hurries to glance at her phone to pretend to be occupied with something more productive than staring at him.

“May I?” He points to her sleeve.

“Sure.” She rolls it up to her elbow and again watches him, this time looking for something inside his backpack.

He puts over the table a pencil case full of colorful pens. His hand rounds her wrist and pulls it to be over the table before he starts working. The first lines are confusing to her, not forming anything in specific.

However, as he works through her forearm, she starts to understand the patterns once she gets it out of her head his last drawing of winter flowers, it’s something different now.

The light colors turn into darker shades of blue, purple and hints of read as he starts adding up details, tilting her wrist a bit to the sides, so he can have the right angle to work on.

As she watches, it seems to last forever, burning in curiosity for the final design. Yet, she keeps it cool, not wanting to scare him away with her enthusiasm. It’s easy to lose track of her thoughts when she’s around him and while he runs the pen along her forearm, her mind runs the possibilities of use of his talent.

She’s interrupted when he loosens the grip on her wrist, finishing up with touches of grey and black that shape a beautiful humming bird.

“What do you think?” He questions after she takes a moment to appreciate the art painted on her arm.

“It’s beautiful, truly.” She says still in a surprised tone. “Thank you.”

+++ 

After that, she plays with the subject more often, taking all the chances she has at their study sessions.

It comes out automatically, even when she tries to hold her tongue to avoid sounding demanding over his skills.

It’s not the most helpful thing for her that he goes along whenever she mentions it, accepting her requests, even when they’re implicit.

He draws a thing or another on her skin, birds, protection goggles, flowers, chemistry molecules, leafs, butterflies, a crescent moon, lab flasks and even once a tiny microscope.

And Jemma loves them all, taking pictures of the astonish art as soon she gets to her dorm, before they fade away. After a few weeks of this, it almost becomes some sort of routine and she finds herself creating a new folder at her phone to keep all the pictures together.

Yet, the one not happy about it is Milton. He dislikes all the drawings, complaining about them to the point Jemma stops showing it to him, wearing long sleeves and only letting him see it only when they are busy in undressing for other reasons then talking.

She doesn’t take time to think the reason why she likes his drawings so much, it’s a bit overwhelming for her to address the way she feels when he takes up his time to create something to please her.

It warms her up. But she suppresses the sensation, because it seems too inappropriate, especially considering they know one another for only some weeks.

Also, it seems easier to leave it all aside and keep on going with her routine, for now, she’s not looking for more things to worry about, especially when it comes to addressing feelings.

Jemma always leaves some spare time to spend working on projects and studying with Fitz, most of the time they spend at the Cave, but from time to time, when people are gaming around and the place it’s too crowded, they leave for other places.

 _He has a very organized desk_. She notices when they step into his room for the first time.

He’s a step ahead of her, shoving a pile of clothes beside his bathroom door to the laundry basket almost forgotten in there. He murmurs some apologies for the mess, but it’s only an exaggerate reaction of his, because the room is mostly neat, pilled books beside his bed, jackets and hoodies hanging in the hook behind the door, schematics glued at the walls.

They sit on the floor, next to each other, talking and reading, passing through all the classes they share in this semester. He waves his hands way too much, but it only brings smiles to her face, because it’s fun to watch. She mentions the great shower he has and he laughs, telling her the one he had when he moved couldn’t deliver hot water, so he built a new one for himself.

“I got most of the pieces from the Workshop.” He shrugs when her eyes widen up. “In my defense, I was a monitor in there and I only got spare parts.”

“I cannot believe you.” She tries to reprehend, but her tone is to light and she cannot hold back smiling when he looks at her with half a smile and raises his eyebrows.

Pure smugness on his face.

She shakes her head in disbelief.

“You act as you don’t envy it.” He teases.

“It’s private property, Fitz.” She tries again and crisps her lips this time, when he doesn’t seem convinced, she crosses her arms and runs a hand down her face. “So young and already making illegal choices.”

“I don’t regret it.”

“It’s great. Sort of wrong, but great, anyway.” She sighs.

“Best improvement I made here.” He jokes and she smiles at him. “So far.”

“So you have more plans?” She uncrosses her arms and leans her back at the edge of his bed, paying attention when he talks about his plans to improve the tech on his room in the following months.

Their chat last longer and longer as the time passes, they have to keep up remembering one another that they meant to be studying, not talking about random things, even if it feels easy to go that way.

“Borrow me your arm.” He says suddenly, when she’s already starting to put away her things, knowing she should get back to her dorm soon.

“What? Now?”

“Yeah.” He waves a hand at her. “Last minute inspiration.” He says.

“Fine.” It actually makes her happy that he takes the initiative this time, balancing things a bit more.

He keeps telling her to look away when he’s drawing, he even moves the place he’s sitting, to get in the way of her line of view.

“It’s a surprise.” He repeats by the third time she tries to spies over his shoulder and tilts his head to the side to be in the way.

She ends up with a shower drawn at the inner part of her arm, with several musical notes surrounding the water drops.

“Do I look as someone that sings in the shower?”

“Yes!” He says with confidence. “Probably a bad singer, lass.”

“How insulting of you.” She sighs to hide a laugh and takes her phone out of her pocket to snap a picture of the drawing.

It occurs to her that she likes spending time with him probably more than she should. Which is pointed out by Milton several times, complaining that he dislikes when she goes to his dorm, even if she tells him beforehand.

He dislikes it even more when she mentions bringing Fitz to study at her room.

Which only happens in very specific occasions and only for short periods of time, because Fitz doesn’t seem comfortable in there. Even if it hurts her a bit, because she loves her dorm room too much and his constant discomfort is a bit annoying.

_Men are so weird._

This thought occurs to her quite often.

 


	5. Similarities

When she leaves her dorm in the morning, she carries an umbrella inside her bag, not trusting the weather forecast about raining only at the end of the afternoon. 

The day before, she tried to convince Milton to tag along with her and go downtown, but he profoundly refused when she said she planned on going in the morning, telling her it’s _way too wrong_ to wake up early in a Saturday.

At the moment, she thought about pointing out he actually enjoys being up Saturday mornings, especially when it involves late night confraternizations at Fridays that last way more than it should. She chose to keep it to herself and her invitation turned into just a comment about her plans the next day.

She has a list on her jeans pocket with all the things she needs to do before heading back home, it’s not long, but it’s a useful reminder in case she’s drawn into a bookshop and gets too distracted.

Before heading out of campus, she stops by the cafeteria to get something to eat. She’s paying for her muffin and tea when she notices Fitz at a table by the door, looking extremely bored as his friend talks and waves his hands in exasperation.

Jemma thinks about stopping by just to be polite, but at the same time, it seems rude to walk to them and interrupt whatever they are talking about. 

She’s about to leave and eat on her way downtown, but when she glances one more time to his table, already decided not to bother them, he sees her. He sits straight up and his bored expression disappears.

She barely has time to wave her head and make her way out, he’s faster then her and interrupts his friend loud discourse, getting up the next moment and walking towards her with a relieved smile.

“Morning, lass.”

“Morning.” She says back and spies to his friend now checking on his phone. “I didn’t mean to interrupt, you seemed to be discussing something important.” She tries to fix it, but he laughs.

“You actually saved me.” Fitz says and starts walking with her. “Hunter broke up with his girlfriend, he’s been texting me all night to complain about it.”

“That sounds horrible! Shouldn’t you stay with him?” She looks again to Hunter at the table, now focused on his food instead of his phone.

“No, not really. They break up all the time, I heard his complains dozens of times before.” He explains and points to the exit door, with a silent question if that’s where she’s heading and she only nods. “It’s almost routine and I’ve been listening to him for the last hour, I was dying for a break.”

“I don’t really know what to say.” She admits when they’re leaving the cafeteria.

“How about what are you up to so early?”

“Hm. I’m heading downtown to buy a few things and maybe stop by a bookshop afterwards.” She says.

“Do you want a ride?” He smiles when he offers and even considering his invitation, she’s about to deny when he speaks again. “You can eat in the car and save me from being persecuted by Hunter once he’s done checking his texts.”

“Fitz.” She sighs.

“Please, save me from my misery, lass.” He shakes his head and crisps his lips, she holds herself not to fall for his little act, but he doesn’t give up, he lowers his face and glances up at her through his lashes.

That’s enough to soften her heart.

“Fine.” She agrees with a shrug. “But you’ll talk to him later, see if he’s alright.”

“I promise.” He crosses his fingers and kisses them.

“Lead the way.” She finally takes a sip on her tea and follows him through the parking lot.

He drives and talks, explaining how his videogame night turned into hell after Hunter’s girlfriend called to yell at him for forgetting they were supposed to be having dinner together.

“He missed several calls from her, I mean, she was ready to go and waited for him, but he didn’t show to pick her up.” Fitz says. “He tried to calm her down and said he was going to make up for her, but it was already too late.”

“No videogames, then?”

“We had a match until he answered the phone, after that, I kept watching him wander around trying to call her, he wouldn’t let me leave, every time I tried, he’d start complaining again.”

She takes the last bite of her muffin, but continues to pay attention to him, nodding to motivate him to keep talking.

“I left around eleven, when he scolded me out because he was going after her.” Fitz says. “I assume it didn’t work, because he showed up at my door by six and dragged me out to keep talking about it.”

“But you said they break up all the time.” She sips her tea when he turns left and they pass by a small square.

“At least twice a month.” He shakes his head when he stops at a red light. “It’s almost disturbing.”

“I’m trying to understand, I just can’t relate to that. I’ve had fights, of course, but once it’s over, that’s it.” She explains.

“They’ll probably get back together by the time we go back.” It’s a bitter comment, but she cannot help laughing at him. “Bookshop first?”

“No, that’s my last stop, I’ll probably get too caught up in there.”

“Where to, then, lass?”

“Somewhere I can get shoelaces, a notebook and shampoo.” She takes out her list, which makes him raise his eyebrows.

“How long is this list of yours?”

“Not much, don’t worry.”

It’s an enjoyable morning, neither of them is in a rush to get back home, so they have time to spend walking from store to store to get all the items on her list and to check out everything slightly interesting at the shelves.

Jemma finds out it’s almost _too_ easy to be around him, they always have something else to talk about, whether is about something they read or a TV show they’re currently watching. Even when they’re both quiet, it’s an easygoing silence, no awkward feeling of not knowing what to say.

It’s around noon when they finish her list and he asks if she’s up to get something to eat before getting back.

“Sure, that’d be great.” She says. “Do you mind if we stop at the bookshop afterwards? I promise it won’t take long.”

“No problem.” He agrees. “Do you want to leave your things at the car before?”

“That’d be great too.” 

They walk a couple blocks from the car to a restaurant both of them know and agree about the quality of the food.

He holds the door for her to enter and pulls the chair for her as well. Even accepting his kindness, it brings a growing concern at the back of her mind, wondering if it’s all about his good manners, or if he’s overthinking the situation.

She watches him taking off his jacket and hanging at the back of his chair before sitting down and questions herself if this looks like more than it actually is. She tries to shake the thought away, but it continues coming back to her every once in a while.

She’s not sure how she could set boundaries between them when it’s so easy to be friends with him. She tries to be more focused on the actual thing than in what others might think about them.

She wonders if he has the same concerns.

“What do you miss the most about home?” He asks once they ordered.

“Well, that’s easy. Nice tea blends and a metric system that actually makes sense.” He laughs in agreement when she says the last part. “What about you?”

He’s chatty, she finds it out, even being aware that she’s never seen him talking to anyone else for that long in campus. Even not wanting to admit it to herself, she’s been paying attention to him, in classes and in the cafeteria.

Most of the time, Fitz sits alone or with one or two friends, doesn’t talk much and it’s definitely less smiley than what she sees when he’s around her.

Part of her understands it, because it’s something she experienced firsthand as well. Being a bit too weird to people of her age, other kids didn’t understand her very well in her childhood and as she skipped grades and got into advanced programs, it became harder to connect with people.

It’s refreshing to meet someone of her age that’s like her and got into similar things growing up.

She wonders if that’s why he’s more open around her. If it’s the fact that his quick mind is intrigued with hers. 

_ Intellectual compatibility _ . 

She wants to believe in it, yet, part of her calls it differently. 

_ Empathy. _

She’s not sure which one is more accurate.

Fitz’s back at opening doors for her when they finish lunch and head to the bookshop a few blocks away. He asks if she’s searching for something specific and the way his eyes focus on her are a bit overwhelming.

“I’m always open to new ideas if you have something to recommend.” She says instead and he shakes his head.

Being surrounded by books has always been something she enjoyed, the infinity amount of possibilities inside those books was everything to her and combining with the fact that they were in reach of her hands, well, it only made things perfect for her.

It’s like getting into a parallel dimension, where she’s not so caught up with time and get the chance to look for something that interests her, besides, everything smells really nice.

“Lass, I think we should go.” Fitz says a while later, with a couple books in hand.

“Yeah, we’ve been here for a while.” She checks her watch and back to him.

“And it’s raining.” He points to the glass doors. “I think it’s getting worse, we should hurry up.”

“Sure, I’ll just pay for it and we can go.” 

At the cashier, she realizes she left her umbrella inside the car with her bag, she only picked her wallet to pay for lunch. It wasn’t supposed to take so long and the rain should only arrive at night fall.

When she asks Fitz about an umbrella and he says he left his at the car, she finds herself getting the plastic bag with her book inside her jacket again. He mimics her a moment before they get out of the store.

It’s a few blocks walk to the place Fitz parked and for the first block, they have places to hide from the rain, but it doesn’t last long and she finds herself running beneath the rain again.

“What’s up with you and rain?” He asks when they have to stop before crossing the street. She rolls her eyes to him and goes back at running the next moment.

They hurry to get inside the car, already dripping wet at the seats.

“Let me rephrase it.” He says between sharp breaths. “What’s up with you, books and rain?”

“Shush it.” She complains, pulling her hair out of the ponytail.

“This.” He points to them and to the rain outside. “This, once it’s enough, but twice.” He grimaces.

“Don’t I know it?” Jemma complains.

“It’s just weird, lass.” He turns on the car and even without his permission, she messes with the heat to make sure she won’t get home freezing. “I mean, if there’s a power issue when we arrive, I’ll be-”

“Fitz!” She puts her hand over his mouth. “Let’s not get into pessimist thoughts, ok?” She waits until he nods to pull it back. “Shall we?”

“Right away, lass.” He says as she places her hands near the air exit.

This time, when they get inside campus, there’re a few places blocked by the rain, but thankfully, no energy problem or anything like it. The other similarity it’s Milton’s confused expression when she gets to her floor, dripping wet and he’s there waiting for her.

“What happened?”

“I don’t think the rain likes me.” She murmurs. “Shower first, explanations later.” She unlocks the door and drops her things at her desk chair, heading straight to the shower.

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sorry about this late update, I got caught up with things at university and didn't have much time to post it before.


	6. Concerns

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I know this chapter is quite late, but here it goes.  
> Hope you enjoy it (:

At Mondays and Wednesdays, Jemma meets Fitz and Cosima at the cafeteria after their last class of the day. They agreed on using a couple hours in each day to work on their project at the Cave. 

It’s still early in the semester, but they’ll all agreed on not letting to finish the project in a rush later.

_ It’s better to be safe than sorry. _ She uses this argument more for herself than to others.

Normally, they’re at some table, talking and snacking while waiting for her to arrive with Milton beside her. Their classes end at the same time, but they always arrive before her and she knows it’s because she stops to wait for Milton before heading to the cafeteria.

He doesn’t join them, but he emphasized repeatedly he’d rather walk with Jemma to the cafeteria every time and say ‘hi’ to her friends before heading to his volleyball practice.

Today it’s no different, she searches across the cafeteria and finds them at a table by the corner, laughing about something Cosima showed him on her phone. She steps inside the cafeteria and Milton’s arm rounds her shoulder automatically, as he does every time she’s going to meet them.

She sighs, because even being a regular gesture between them, she knows that it has a different meaning in these moments. She dislikes the possessive posture, but choses to ignore it for now, not wanting to get into this discussion at the moment and hoping he’ll realize soon enough there’s no need for this.

He kisses her before he leaves and turns around twice to glance at her before leaving the cafeteria. 

When she sits down beside Fitz, Cosima has a grimace on her face, twisting her nose for her.

“Told you. Twice!” Fitz says to Cosima. “You owe me.”

“Damn it, Jemma.” Cosima complains. “Why does your boyfriend need to be so predictable?”

“What? Were you betting on him?”

“The routine, lass.” Fitz explains and Cosima sighs. “He does the exact same thing every time you come to meet us.”

“And I thought he only looked back once, but it’s twice and Fitz was right.” She throws her napkin at him when he laughs again. “I just lost my favorite headphones.”

“I cannot believe you were-”

“Don’t tell me you haven’t noticed it.” Cosima interrupts. “It’s like you’re dating a robot, so automatic.” She gets up and opens up her backpack and starts searching inside it.

“I don’t know what to say.” 

“Don’t worry, I’ll take good care of them.” Fitz mocks with a smile dancing on his lips when Cosima offers the headphones to him. “Thank you.” He smiles, analyzing the piece on his hands. “Should we-”

“Don’t accept them.” She smacks Fitz’s arm, interrupting him.

“What?” He turns to her. “But I won them, lass.” He tries to argue, but not even his hypnotizing eyes are enough to make her change her mind.

“You shouldn’t bet on people, it’s not right.” She crosses her arm and raises her eyebrows when he looks conflicted. “Come on, give them back.”

“Fine.” He hands them back to Cosima. “It’s yours.” He mutters.

“Thank you.” She smiles when she gets it back.

“Don’t you get happy about it, you were wrong as well.” Jemma reprehends. “Can we be adults again and get back to our project?”

Despite that incident, everything else goes well between them when they’re all working together with the drone project. 

At this point, they’ve recalibrated it several times and they’re getting closer to what they had initially planned and most of the time they spend working with the software, to make sure it’s capable of reading the incoming data precisely and within a short period of time, which it’s been their bigger difficulty at the moment.

“It still takes too long.” Cosima sighs when Fitz complains about the delay. “It only reads two thirds of it in the time we want.” She walks across the room with her laptop in hands, stopping beside Fitz to see what he’s working on.

“Couldn’t we reduce the area searched?” Jemma asks a moment later, interrupting their mumbling across the room and both of them look at her with utter discontent. “Don’t look at me like that, I’m sure it occurred to you as well.” She tries to defend herself, but Fitz rolls his eyes and Cosima shakes her head.

“Then it won’t be impressive.” Fitz says and stars searching for something on his bench. “We can figure this out, I’m sure, I just need some time to work on the drone and see what I can do.” He closes his laptop and pulls the drone closer to him. 

“Jemma and I work with the software then?” Cosima asks and walks back to sit beside Jemma.

“Yes, but it’s temporary.” He shrugs and stares at the drone while speaking. “I just need a few days to see if I can upgrade the sensors and improve the transmission, maybe try a different frequency and-”

“I’ll be fine with it.” Jemma says. “Just let us know if you need any help, alright?” She asks, but Fitz only nods, still unhappy. 

They work in silence most of the following time, too caught up with their individual tasks to be communicative about it. From time to time, there’s a sigh or a grumble about something.

Jemma tries to keep all of her focus on the screen in front of her, hoping to see something between the lines of code that could be the reason they’re having so much problems with the on-time readings.

Cosima’s sitting right next to her, doing the exactly the same thing and getting as frustrated as Jemma every time they run a simulation with the previous data and see that the clock isn’t marking any less time.

Fitz is across the room, working with the drone and now with his headphones on, not Cosima’s thankfully to Jemma, and seem to be getting more progress than any of them.

“You’re aware why Milton acts like that, right?” Cosima says casually while typing.

“Hm?” She’s taken out of her focus and glances at her friend beside her. “Acts like what?”

“Like a damn robot and all.” She explains without looking away from her laptop.

“What do you mean?” It makes Jemma stop and look at her friend.

“The whole routine Fitz mentioned, it’s like he has a script and a well thought one to act out every time you see us.” Cosima explains and Jemma sighs, knowing exactly what she’s talking about but didn’t want to think about.

“It’s not a big deal.” 

“Come on, Jems.” Cosima takes her glasses off to clean and raises her eyebrows when Jemma continues quiet. “There’s no way you’re blind like this.”

“Enlighten me then. What am I missing?” Her tone is acid, but she’s more invested than expected in hearing Cosima’s impressions about the situation. 

“There, right in front of you. That’s why Milton’s all weird around us.” Cosima points to Fitz. “He’s bothered by how much time you spend with Fitz, I mean, it’s visible on his face, he’s terrible in hiding these things.”

“Fitz’s my friend, all we do is study together.” She tries to justify, but it’s a weak statement and Cosima don’t buy it either. “But you’re right, I noticed he does the same thing every time I’m meeting you two, but he’s like that all the time.”

“Can’t believe I almost lost my headphones for that.” Cosima says. “Anyway, you should probably sort out what to do next to fix it with Milton.”

“What am I supposed to do about it? I won’t stop spending time with my friends just because Milton’s jealous, he’ll have to figure it out on his own.” Jemma argues.

“Right, it makes sense.” She starts slowly, glancing one more time to Fitz. “But how do you think _he_ ’ll read all of this? You choosing him over your boyfriend complains.”

She opens her mouth to answer, but there’re no words to come out. She crisps her lips when Cosima smiles.

“Guys, how about we call it a day and continue this other day?” Cosima says loud enough for Fitz to hear even with his headphones on, giving Jemma no opportunity to say anything else not that Fitz’s paying attention again.

“Agree.” It’s all he says before starting packing up his belongings. “Got a headache already, it’s better to sleep on it and continue tomorrow.”

“Think about it, ok? Text me if you need to talk to someone.” It’s the last thing Cosima says to her before picking up her laptop and backpack and heading out the study area of the Cave.

She’s the last one to move to get her things organized, and she’s not sure if she’s surprised when Fitz halts at the door and turns around, stopping just a few steps from the bench she was working on. 

“Do you want me to walk with you?” He offers, playing with the zipper of his hoodie.

“I’d like that.” It leaves her mouth before she can think twice about it, even with Cosima’s words still echoing in her thoughts.

She chooses to follow his advice. Sleep on the problem and try to figure it out tomorrow.

_ Maybe something will come up to help me fix it. _

She’s not even sure she believes it.


	7. Confirmations

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Creativity boost, another chapter ready :D

“Could you please stop talking about this project?” Milton asks when they’re eating dinner in his room. “I know it’s upsetting you, but there’s months to finish it up yet.”

“It’s just that I cannot take it out of my head.” She bites another bread stick. “It’s frustrating, we’re doing everything but it’s still lagging.”

“You’re smart, you’ll figure it out eventually.” He says and she stares at him, disliking his tone, but he’s no longer paying attention to her.

“Thank you for that.” She’s acid, but he’s focused on the TV again and actually smiles to her for a second, not a bit aware of her irony.

While eating, her mind continues trying to work on their problem, afraid they won’t be able to find a suitable solution and that it will force them to change for a less innovating idea and get satisfied with smaller results.

She wants to talk about it, let her frustrations out of her chest in hope that speaking it aloud and with someone else not involved, she’ll be able to analyze the situation better, maybe listen a different point of view that might lead her to the right direction or a new approach.

Yet, she’s stuck with eating dinner in silence and ignoring another TV show about beloved sports she cannot truly understand.

_How is it even called football?_

Jemma keeps her thoughts to herself, even preferring the actual version she grew up watching with her parents back in England.

Instead of upsetting herself about it, she directs all of her attention to her phone, opening one of the articles she found earlier to help her with the elective she’s about neurological rehabilitation.

Milton doesn’t even notice she zoned out as well and continues to comment aloud about the TV show as Jemma was still listening, the only pro about his lack of attention on her is the fact that he doesn’t realize she’s no longer responding anything to him.

Moments like this one makes Jemma wonder how they got this far considering how much they seem not to have common interests. Part of her remembers they used to be more in sync in the first few months of their relationship, but she also knows that her memories aren’t exact and that she shouldn’t try to compare, she’s different now from the person she was when they met for the first time.

She’s with her mouth full and all her attention on her phone when she notices that the TV is silent and that she’s been caught up.

“I thought we were supposed to spend some time together, talk to one another and all.” He reprehends and it’s unfortunate that she doesn’t find a better way to answer than rolling her eyes.

“You were watching TV the whole time.” She argues back.

“We were talking about your project.” Milton tries to blame on her, but she sighs.

“You didn’t want to listen to it anymore, I got my phone when you started talking to the TV.” It’s probably a bitter way to say it, but she doesn’t regret it and grabs another breadstick to eat. “I’m more than happy to get back at talking.”

Their night ends early, with her initiative to get back to her dorm room before they start arguing about something silly and end up regretting whatever they might say to one another.

He insists a couple times for her to stay, but she’s too stressed to think about listening about whatever weird football jokes on the TV show he likes so much to watch.

“I’ll see you tomorrow, ok?” It’s the last thing she says before walking out his room.

Jemma doesn’t check her phone after she’s in her dorm, so it’s not surprising that in the next morning there’s a bunch of texts for her to catch up, most of them from Milton, saying that last night was messy and that he hoped she wasn’t upset with him.

She’s still a bit asleep when she reads them, she replies to calm him down and accept the invitation for lunch without looking twice.

She showers and changes and doesn’t give her cell phone much attention until she gets another reply and a second invitation for lunch from Milton. She’s about to joke about it when she reads the last messages of the chat and realizes that he didn’t invite her sooner.

It takes her a moment to realize she must have accepted someone else’s invitation and it doesn’t take more than a few seconds to confirm it and see that she replied to Fitz instead of Milton.

_I’m dying for some Thai food, what do you think? ~ F._

_I’ll wait you in the parking lot after class, ok? ~ F._

“You have to pay more attention.” She murmurs to herself and starts typing a reply for Fitz while thinking about what to tell Milton.

_Sure, Thai sounds great. Noon at the parking lot, noted! ~ J._

She ends up calling Milton when she’s leaving her dorm to head to class, she takes the stairs and waves to a few colleagues she finds in the way while waiting for him to pick up.

_“Hey, babe.”_

“Hi, hm, I got your text about lunch today.” She starts slowly. “I already promised a friend we’d have lunch today, could we reschedule?”

 _“Sure, which-”_ She doesn’t let him finish asking.

“Great, how about dinner tomorrow?” She hurries to say. “A night to chill out before your game on Saturday, what do you think?”

 _“Sure, I make the reservations later in that restaurant you like.”_ He offers.

“Wonderful. I have to go to class soon, but we’ll talk later.” She waits for him to say goodbye before hanging up, relieved in not having to tell him with whom she’s having lunch today.

Her conversation with Cosima last week is still fresh in her mind and she’s still not sure of how to deal with the situation. The more time that passes, the worse it seems to figure it out how to talk to Milton and clear it out he has no reason to be jealous of her friendship with Fitz, exactly by this reason, that they’re just good friends.

Yet, it’s hard to set clear boundaries with Fitz, because he’s always around and she likes his company, even if it’s just to sit down somewhere and spend the whole time reading different things and not talking at all.

And she’s not even sure Fitz is overthinking their friendship, because when they speak, it seems obvious that he’s in the same place as her, not used to have friends of his age or someone that’s actually interested in listening when he cannot shut up about something that he finds interesting.

At times, she thinks she’s the one overthinking the situation with him possibly overthinking it and the fact that she keeps trying to find a solution to a problem she’s not even sure it exists it’s already a problem. What will she do with all this effort if eventually she finds out it was all an illusion?

It’s confusing when she goes down that path and, so far, she only deals with it by switching her attention to something else and moving on with her day.

And right now, she chooses to get all attention to her classes.

It’s a slow morning, with lectures way too long for its content, she finds more than enough time to write her notes and be able to listen to everything without much multitask skills.

She enjoys that the class happens in an auditorium, so she doesn’t have to pretend too much to be paying full attention to class, since she’s not in the line of sight of professor Vaughn.  It’s also good because she can see several of her peers drawing things on their notebooks instead of writing down notes, which she takes as a sign that they’re bored as well.

Fitz’s already inside his car when she goes to the parking lot, he parked right in front of her building and she can see that he’s reading a book in the driver’s seat, waiting for her to leave her class.

She knocks on the window before opening the door not to startle him and he smiles back, telling to her to get inside.

“No rain today, lass?” He teases and starts the engine.

“Thankfully not. I just checked the forecast and it’s going to be rainless for the next days.” She buckles her seatbelt and puts her backpack in the back seat.

“That’s good to hear.” He glances at her for just a second before focusing on the road. “Are you fine with Thai food?”

“Absolutely, it’s been ages since the last time I ate it.” She admits.

The restaurant is too crowded and according to the receptionist, it would take them at least one hour of waiting to get a table.

“There’s some sort of event happening there, some sort of celebration for what I saw.” Fitz says getting back outside where Jemma was waiting. “We could go somewhere else.”

“But didn’t you want to eat Thai?”

“I’ll probably survive without it as well.” He jokes. “There’s lots of restaurants around, we can find another one easily.” He checks his watch when he speaks.

“There’s a restaurant a couple blocks away from here with really good Indian food.” She suggests. “It’s not the same, but it’s equally tasty.”

“Lead the way, lass.”

They end up getting takeout, because both of them are too impatient to wait up too long for a table, especially knowing it’s a lot faster to get their orders to-go. They even drive back to campus with the spare time and head to the Cave to eat.

She doesn’t mind when he steals bites of her food or when he keeps telling he loved the food and thanking her for introducing the restaurant to him. She also enjoys the rarity of seeing the Cave empty and being able to choose any table they want.

“It’s delicious, lass.” He says when he’s about to get the last bite of his meat. “I don’t think I’ve ever ate something this good.”

“Glad to know you liked.”

“This was so much better than Thai would’ve been.” He finally eats the last of his food, humming aloud and making her laugh at his spontaneity. He grabs her hand when he’s done eating and kiss the back of it. “Thank you for lunch and your company.”

“Fitz!” She reprehends and pulls her hand back. “You left my hand greasy.” She wrinkles her nose and gets a napkin to clean her hand.

“I’m too satisfied to even be sorry about it.” He admits with a half-smile.

++++

Between her nice lunch with Fitz the day before and the tons of homework she has to finish, she doesn’t find herself too much into the idea of going out to eat again, but since she promised to Milton as well, she obliges herself to be more enthusiastic about the idea.

After spending her afternoon inside the lab working with petri dishes and a centrifuge, she heads to the library to grab a book the lab’s supervisor recommended and finally heads back to her dorm, already thinking about what to wear and checking the weather to be sure there’s no possibility of rain tonight.

_Pick you up at eight? ~ Milton._

_Sure. ~ J._

She showers and dries her hair with patience to make some curls. She gets into the only black dress she owns and since winter is still about to begin, she gets some tights on to deal with the colder weather setting in.

A coat and her favorite pair of boots are everything she needs for the night, so she decides to work on her makeup and keep checking if the curls in her hair aren’t giving up yet.

The knock on her door is twenty minutes earlier, and she asks for him to wait up a moment, because she’s putting on her boots and then goes to answer the door.

She smiles for all the wrong reasons.

It’s not Milton on her door, but Fitz and his eyes keep getting bigger at every fraction of second passing, just like blue marbles, but with an infinity inside them that are way too distracting for his own good.

“Oh, hi, Fitz.” She says in a rush. “I thought it was Milton.”

“Hey.” It’s all that he manages to say after several tries of opening his mouth and no word coming out.

“Fitz?” She asks when he stays quiet for almost another minute, his eyes still wide and mouth gaped, a complete astonished expression. “Fitz?” He seems to lose a breath when she calls him, but recovers it the next second and straights his shoulders, his apple dances when he swallows his words again.

She raises her eyebrows, needing no more confirmation about her endless train of thought about overthinking _his_  possible overthinking.

“Hm.” He starts again and she holds the doorframe, waiting for him to say whatever he has to say. “Right, Simmons.” He shakes his head and glances somewhere inside her room. “Is this a bad time, right?”

“Not yet.” She says and watches as his hands get nervous again, leading him to hide them inside the pockets of his jacket. It makes her remember the hoodie he borrowed her and that’s still inside her wardrobe, washed and clean, waiting for a few months to get back to its owner.

“I finished the sensors.” He says slowly. “I started new ones after what we talked last week.” He continues in the same rhythm, as the words are hard to make sense and she notices how he’s fighting himself to keep his attention on her face. “But I can come back tomorrow so we can discuss it.” He finally finishes talking and she nods.

“That’s wonderful.”

“I’ll just go.” He murmurs more to himself, but still halts for several seconds before turning away. “Enjoy your date, Simmons.” He says.

He still seems lost when he’s walking away, but she doesn’t watch him for more than a few seconds, getting back inside to finish up getting ready and to text her boyfriend.

_Not the way I planned, but effective all the same to say the least._

She keeps the thought for herself, knowing that’s only part of the problem, she’s still aware that she’ll have to find a way to talk to Milton about it and explain that everything is under control that he no longer needs to be jealous about her friendship with Fitz.

_Maybe tonight we’ll be able to talk about it._

_If we even talk at all._

"Enough with the bitter thoughts, Jemma." She says to the mirror when she's getting her coat on. “Let’s enjoy the night.”

**Author's Note:**

> I have several more pages written, should I continue posting?


End file.
